Visiting Janice and Darren- March 2013

Janice, Darren, and Fudgie

We spent most of our Spring Break trip with Janice, Darren, and their pug Fudgie. We arrived late on Thursday evening, and took it easy. Friday, Janice was off from work so we spent some quality time in the afternoon, went to lunch and took James to the park. The park had a fun sandpit where James made sand pies and shoveled little paths.

At the park on Friday

Scooping up sand in the pit

Not that James needed any activities really. He loves little dogs like Fudgie, and Janice and Darren have a little backyard they can chase each other in. Pretty much heaven for James.

Chasing Fudgie outside

Playing with Fudgie inside

Saying goodnight to Fudgie!

Of course, my favorite part of the day was still after James went to sleep. We ordered take out and watched the final Twilight movie. This is a little tradition of ours with Janice and Darren, and it started ironically, but then I kind of got into it. And by kind of, I mean I really got into it. We like mocking it while we watch it though, so there were lots of jokes as the expense of Taylor Lautner, who we dubbed "Uncle Boyfriend."  

After William B's birthday party on Saturday, Darren and Janice joined us for a trip to another bigger park. James had the run of the whole place and at one point tried to steal some sporting equipment from an adult couple. After that we returned him to Janice and Darren's backyard where he managed to get himself stuck in some shrubbery.

Hanging out in the back yard on Saturday

 

Not only is he stuck in shrubbery, but I am taking a photo instead of helping

We ordered take out again, but after James fell asleep we realized we were out of Twilight movies and faced the existential crisis of what other movie to watch. Kevin would have voted for college basketball as he had spent much of the weekend sneaking games on his phone. We tried to give Kevin and Darren a choice in movies, but they kept insisting the decision be left to me and Janice. Unfortunately for them, Janice and I are vaguely sadistic, so we picked Taylor Lautner's movie Abduction. We got drinks and placed our bets on how many minutes before Lautner removed his shirt. I guessed 10 minutes, and Kevin and Janice guessed more than that, then Darren guessed 3 minutes, "if not in the opening credits." Yeah, he won.

Multi-tasking: Giving James an evening bottle, snuggling Fudgie, watching basketball.

Cute! Snuggled up for movie night.

Some other recent visits with Janice and Darren: Janice visited me on my birthday, I saw Janice and Darren in DC in January, Janice and I went up to Warwick for Girls Weekend in November, and we took a trip into Manhattan in October. Wow! We've been doing really well with visits lately!

Visiting Janice, Darren, Megan, and Ed 2012

We spent the weekend with Janice, Darren, and their pug, Fudgie. Saturday's highlights included a visit from Megan and Ed who are expecting a baby in two weeks. Megan has the same due date James had last year, but we'll see if she gets lucky with an on-time arrival. It was the first time Megan and Ed met James who is decidedly out of the baby phase and into the toddler-causing-trouble phase.

Bucks + Taylors + Clouthers = Happy

Janice, Megan, (baby William T. in belly), me, and James

James spent the majority of his day alternating between being timid of Fudgie and then chasing Fudgie around trying to grab his tail. James and Fudgie were fast friends and even (to the adult humans' chagrin) insisted on sharing toys. At one point James grabbed Fudgie leash, and Fudgie seemed ready and willing to go for a walk with him. Sadly for Fudgie we don't let James outside by himself. 

Pretending to walk Fudgie

We also watched Twilight: Breaking Dawn together, and though we claimed we were doing so ironically, I'm going to admit that I loved every cheesy illogical bad-acting moment of it. But it was fun to talk during the movie and crack jokes. Given the nature of the movie, most of our jokes were shockingly inappropriate (ask me in person and I'll tell you though) but here's a family friendly one.

Kevin: "You know what the ONE thing that doesn't make sense about this movie is?"
Darren: "Yeah, they're vampires, so why do they need air bags?"

Apparently, Darren has an issue with the fact that, "Mr Sparkle has a different Volvo in each movie, and what's Volvo's appeal? Safety! You're cursed with eternal life - throw caution to the wind and drive an old British roadster. When it breaks down, you can fly home."

Sunday we went to an Arlington baby park and James ran around touching things he shouldn't, screaming in horror when he walked into the sand box, swinging, and playing a little soccer with Auntie Janice.

James and Janice playing soccer

Swinging with "dah-T" (daddy)

Finally, Sunday afternoon Jaime came over to assist the Bucks with babysitting James while Kevin and I enjoyed the Landsman wedding.  It was super nice of the three of them to watch him for us, because as I explained to many people at the wedding, bringing James would have been no fun.  No one would have been pleased when he ate all the flower petals in the aisle or sprinted onto the dance floor during the first dance.  Discipline doesn't work so well on an 11-month-old, especially when said-11-month-old is stronger than his mother.  The Jaime-Janice-Darren babysitting team boldly changed diapers, fed James, gave James his evening bath, delighted in watching more Fudgie-chasing, and happily put him to sleep. No small feat! Thank you buddies!

Bonus glamour shot of Fudgie because he is that cute